


The Waiting Room

by Alifredson



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Afterlife, Captain Swan - Freeform, F/M, Hell, I mostly just like messing with mythological dieties, Orpheus and Eurydice Myth, Purgatory, Underworld, spoilers for mid-season finale
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-07
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-05 11:01:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5372909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alifredson/pseuds/Alifredson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Death is not quite what Killian expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Waiting Room

Over the many decades of immortality in Neverland, Killian Jones had contemplated death many, many times. At first, Killian wished for death because  _Milah_  was with death. Then, once the need for revenge took over his grief and loss, he wondered what death would feel like. Would it be like going to sleep after a long day? The comfort of an old friend after a stressful struggle? He wondered what would happen after death. He knew enough of magic, and of people who had used it to toe the line between this world and the next a bit too well, to know that nothingness did not await him. Would the powers that be see his anguish and righteousness over Milah's death and allow him rest or would he be consigned to the groan-filled shadows that were said to exist? 

Thoughts of death played constantly in the back of Killian's mind, but were often overshadowed by this concern or that job. He neither wished for death nor immortality, simply the time he needed to skin the crocodile. 

Then Killian met Emma. The quiet but constant question about what he would find in death was erased from the periphery of his mind. It came back in spurts, but more along the lines of the pleasure it would be to give death the gift of Rumpelstiltskin's head; Killian had no need to wonder at death's plan for him when he had Emma, so full of life, in front of him.

After their return from rescuing Henry in Neverland, Killian, aided by Henry and sometimes David, was exposed to popular culture of the realm, which included quite a few references to death and the what-comes-after. (That is, after a short, but not unreasonable stint of self-doubt and depression thanks to Emma and Neal's will they or won't they train wreck of a relationship.) 

There had been a book where hell was in levels and the deceased were punished by their crimes. Killian had wondered if it would make sense for he and Milah to be blown about with the other doomed couples since he now loved Emma far better than he had loved Milah, but figured that he would probably share in the tortures of the murderers. 

There had then been a play, a suggestion from Emma, where three people were locked in a room together for all eternity and hell was being annoyed by each other for the rest of time. They had talked about it later. "I always thought it was funny," Emma had said, "that line, 'Hell is other people.'" Killian had just nodded sagely, "Hell  _is_  other people, love."

Henry loaned him a series of books (then sat him down for a movie marathon later) that had contained a momentary glimpse into a sort of hell. Gandalf, who had honestly not been Killian's favorite, had fallen into a fiery pit, pulled in by a demon, assumedly to be tortured. Although the fire was a bit much, torture did seem like it should be reasonably accepted that it would be a part of a hell. 

Then Henry's pirate kick had taken hold (and David had gleefully taken part) and he had been hellbent on showing Killian every pirate related movie he could get his hands on. There had been the disaster that was the horribly mangled, cartoon version of his own story. Then the more entertaining but completely unrealistic story of an aged Hook and adult-Pan fighting over adult-Pan's children ("I would have  _gladly_ given Rumpelstiltskin over" he had complained). A few dry, but at least not painfully inaccurate, documentaries of piracy in this realm had followed. Then came  _Pirates of the Caribbean_ , which had been horribly painful because Jack Sparrow was an awful, awful pirate. He had been glad that the awful character died, until the next installment began and found Jack in Davy Jones' Locker (not real, he had assured Henry. Pirates go to the same hell as everyone else). He would take torture over the hell depicted here... why did that man have an alter-ego that was a chicken? How had that made any sense. 

The one hell that had seemed all to real, though, had come out of another one of the cartoons. It had been his favorite, only partially because Emma had sat next to him the entire time and held his hand, but mostly because it had nothing to do with pirates, and it was funny. Hades had been his favorite, with his blue-flame hair, incompetent minions, and mood swings ranging from glee to sass to barely-keeping-it-together. ("I always liked him too," Emma admitted.) But Hades' hell had hit him hard. Decrepit, emaciated shades of souls groaning and being sucked down, down, down into eternity. That was the hell he expected. 

When Killian died he tried so very hard to concentrate only on Emma. He needed to remember everything. So he cataloged it all. The taste of her lips, the pressure of them against his. The feel of her tears smudged against his skin. The softness of her hair, the warmth of her breath, the sound of his name, and the knowledge that she would miss him.  _Don't forget_ , he told himself _. You must never forget._

Finally (had it been seconds, minutes, hours, days, longer?) Killian felt no pain from his Excalibur inflicted wounds and his eyes begged to open. 

Hell was... not what he had expected. 

Hell, apparently, was a long, bare, cool (but not cold), grey-stoned hall and it was empty. ("Hell is empty" Emma had quoted once, "all the devils are here.") He stayed still, afraid that any movement on his part would spring up fires, like Henry and Aurora's post-sleeping curse fire hall. But, he couldn't stay still forever, although his wounds were gone, he could feel a headache pounding in his skull and he had no doubt that his feet and legs would eventually tire. He took a deep breath,  _be brave_  he thought  _like Emma would be_ , and Killian took a step. 

Nothing happened. 

So he took another and another and another. So, was hell being stranded on your own? I wouldn't make much sense. Killian had left his crew because he preferred to be on his own. Although he'd now miss Emma and the others, he did have several hundred years of memories to keep himself occupied. Was hell to slowly start to feel hungry and thirsty without food or drink to quench that need? It would be horrible, but Killian had been a street urchin- the pangs of starvation were not unknown to him. And really, he was already dead, so how much worst could it get?

This hell was seriously underwhelming. What was he supposed to do, just sit here and wait like...

"Purgatory?" A voice finished and Killian's head snapped to the stone column nearby where a woman stood, contemplating him. "You aren't in hell, Killian Jones, you are in my waiting room."


End file.
